COMMENCEMENT  DAY  ADDRESS. 


BY  HON.  FRANKLIN  E.  BROOKS. 


[In  introducing  Hon.  Franklin  E.  Brooks,  President  Aylesworth  spoke 
as  follows :  “It  is  fortunate,  indeed,  that  a  Representative  from  Colorado 
was  appointed  on  the  Committee  on  Agriculture  of  the  last  Congress.  We 
were  doubly  fortunate  in  having  one  represent  us  who  is  thoroughly  awake 
to  the  immense  development  and  the  dignity  of  modern  scientific  agriculture. 

“You  will  recall  that  this  college  appeared  before  the  last  session  of 
Congress  asking  for  a  special  appropriation  of  $50,000  a  year  for  five  years, 
for  the  breeding  of  Rocky  Mountain  types  of  horses  and  cattle  and  experi¬ 
mental  feeding  upon  home-grown  foods.  It  was  a  bold  undertaking,  but, 
thanks  to  Mr.  Brooks,  our  other  Representatives  and  to  our  Senators,  we 
made  a  handsome  beginning.  The  outlook  is  excellent  for  still  more  satis¬ 
factory  results  at  the  next  session.  Mr.  Brooks  worked  day  and  night,  and 
with  rare  intelligence,  not  only  for  an  appropriation  for  this  institution,  but 
for  all  the  appropriations  asked  for  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  Sec¬ 
retary  Wilson  has  written  us  his  thorough  appreciation  of  Mr.  Brooks’  great 
assistance  to  him  in  securing  enlarged  appropriations  for  the  Department. 

“It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  introduce  to  you  this  friend  of  the 
Colorado  Agricultural  College.”] 


The  Department  of  Agriculture  in  its  Relation  to  Some 

Phases  of  Industrial  Education. 


Conditions  change  rapidly  in  these  later  days  of  advancement 
and  growth.  There  is  little  in  the  scenes  of  to-day  to  recall  the 
typical  college  commencement  of  half  a  century  ago,  with  its  pon¬ 
derous  “O ratio  in  Latina  ”  its  emaciated  valedictorian  with  an  over¬ 
fed  soul  peering  through  the  bleared  windows  of  an  under-fed  body ; 
with  its  President  white  haired  and  venerable,  and  above  all  with 
the  aloofness  and  other-worldliness  that  characterized  too  much  the 
university  life  of  those  days.  There  was  an  atmosphere  and  an 
aroma  of  a  world  by  itself  that  was  not  of  our  world ;  of  a  world  with 
its  own  standards  and  its  own  ends  and  aims  very  different  from 
those  of  the  every-day  world  outside  the  academic  walls.  It  was  a 
terrible  awakening  which  met  the  dreamer  of  four  long  years  as  he 
stepped  from  his  realm  of  thought  into  the  realm  of  action,  and  it 
was  but  natural  that  close  observers  recognized  a  fundamental  lack 
in  that  style  of  university  training  as  a  preparative  for  active  life, 
and  sought  and  found  a  remedy. 

There  is  perhaps  as  little  similarity  between  the  old  college 
education  and  the  industrial  education  furnished  by  institutions 
such  as  this,  as  there  is  between  this  day  and  those  I  have  just 
mentioned. 


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I  am  not  criticising  the  old  education.  It  did  its  work.  It 
laid  broad  and  deep  foundations  for  true  manliness  and  great  men ; 
it  produced  its  splendid  types ;  it  did  its  full  share  in  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  our  national  life,  and  there  is  still  a  wide  field  and  a  great 
work  for  it  to  do  in  its  modern  form.  I  am  simply  noting  differences. 

New  conditions  have  demanded  new  methods  and  have  marked 
out  and  determined  new  lines  of  activity.  In  education,  as  in  other 
things,  “Time  makes  ancient  good  uncouth,”  and  here  too  “The 
thoughts  of  men  are  widened  with  the  process  of  the  suns.”  It 
is  perhaps  well  to  consider  very  briefly  a  few  of  the  results  of  these 
new  needs  and  new  conditions ;  and  inasmuch  as  this  is,  in  a  sense, 
a  national  institution,  it  may  not  also  be  inapt  to  dwell  briefly  on 
some  of  the  features  of  the  relation  of  the  National  Government  to 
the  movement  here  exemplified.  It  may  be  interesting  also  to  note 
some  of  the  steps  that  are  being  taken  at  Washington,  to  further 
and  assist  the  work  which  is  being  so  admirably  done  at  this  and 
some  fifty  other  institutions  like  it  in  this  country;  to  note  for  a 
moment  the  results  and  to  gather  inspirations  for  new  effort  along 
the  same  and  broader  lines. 

It  was  seventy  years  ago  that  Horace  Mann  first  saw  the  need 
of  a  more  definite  relation  between  education  and  life  work;  be¬ 
tween  the  formative  and  the  productive  periods  of  existence ;  be¬ 
tween  theory  and  practice,  and  perhaps  to  him  we  may  now  look 
back  as  to  the  father  of  industrial  education  in  this  country.  Stephen 
Van  Rensellaer  had  in  1824  established  the  Rensellaer  Polytechnic 
Institution,  but  this  was  hardly  a  part  of  the  general  movement. 
After  Mann  came  a  long  line  of  workers  evolving  a  system  of 
training  in  the  mechanic  arts  and  the  applied  sciences.  Peter 
Cooper,  Johns  Hopkins,  Case,  Wayland,  Sheffield  and  others  were, 
in  different  lines,  working  on  the  same  or  similar  problems  and 
achieving  results  which  are  seen  in  the  wider,  broader  and  more 
practical  academic  courses  of  to-day ;  in  a  greater  attention  to  applied 
science,  and  in  the  rise  and  growth  of  technical  schools,  where  the 
industrial  arts  and  practical  sciences  are  taught  with  primary  refer¬ 
ence  to  their  relation  to  actual  work-a-day  conditions. 

It  is  hardly  strange,  in  view  of  the  conservatism  of  agricul¬ 
tural  communities,  that  the  great  foundation  of  all  wealth  and  the 
basis  of  all  national  growth  and  prosperity  should  have  been  almost 
the  last  subject  to  have  received  practical  attention  on  its  educa¬ 
tional  side.  The  culture  of  the  ground  and  its  allied  pursuits  had 
long  been  eliminated  from  the  list  of  callings  requiring  any  consider¬ 
able  mental  training.  It  had  long  been  the  acme  of  the  ambition  of 
the  prosperous  farmer,  who  had  wrested  his  own  means  and  the  sus¬ 
tenance  of  his  family  from  the  soil,  in  his  effort  to  better  the  condi- 


3 


tion  of  his  children,  to  send  his  brightest  boys  to  college.  He  had, 
however,  no  thought  of  his  own  life  pursuit  as  a  proper  subject  for 
scientific  study  and  elaborate  preparation.  His  daughters  were 
largely  negligible  quantities  so  far  as  the  educational  world  was  con¬ 
cerned,  but  in  this  regard  they  did  not  differ  from  the  daughters  of 
the  professional  men  of  his  day.  Slowly,  as  the  example  of  the 
effect  of  the  applied  sciences  was  borne  in  on  his  life  from  other 
lines  of  activity,  as  the  condition  of  agricultural  prosperity  became 
more  complex,  requiring  a  greater  degree  of  thought  and  attention, 
came  the  realization  that  his  calling  was  really  of  the  same  dignity 
and  called  for  the  same  thoroughness  of  training  as  any  other ;  and 
so  the  agricultural  population  awoke  at  last  to  its  needs  and  its 
boundless  opportunities. 

The  awakening  was  slow  at  first;  the  efforts  to  change  exist¬ 
ing  conditions  were  sporadic,  without  organization,  and  many  of 
them  ineffective,  but  interest  was  aroused  and  the  facts  of  the  situa¬ 
tion  became  known. 

It  was  natural,  considering  the  fact  that  the  agricultural  popu¬ 
lation  forms  the  great  mass  of  our  body  politic,  and  that  from  this 
source  comes  the  great  majority  of  our  voters,  that  the  earlier 
manifestations  of  the  movement  for  a  greater  degree  of  intellectual 
training  to  be  applied  to  agricultural  pursuits  should  be  through 
the  State  and  National  governments.  A  splendid  opportunity  for 
national  action  existed  in  the  wide  stretches  of  the  public  domain, 
subject  to  governmental  disposition.  The  people  seized  that  oppor¬ 
tunity  through  their  representatives,  and  our  agricultural  colleges 
of  to-day  are  but  one  of  the  many  beneficial  results  of  our  method  of 
dealing  with  our  public  lands.  The  first  great  stimulus  to  agricul¬ 
tural  education  came  from  a  donation  in  1862  by  the  National 
Government  to  the  States,  of  portions  of  these  lands,  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  establishing  agricultural  colleges.  This  was  later  followed 
by  the  Hatch  Act  in  1887,  to  which  the  national  experiment  stations 
are  due.  The  interest  of  the  Government  in  the  agricultural  schools 
of  the  country,  thus  evidenced,  has  been  a  fostering  and  increasing 
one  to  this  day,  and  the  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  sta¬ 
tions  are  in  much  closer  touch  with  our  National  Government  than 
any  other  similar  institutions  except  those  where  our  Nation’s  wards 
are  trained,  and  the  Naval  and  Military  Academies. 

For  a  double  reason,  therefore,  these  institutions  should  stand 
for  a  popular  education  in  its  best  sense ;  for  that  which  equips 
its  recipients,  intellectually  and  on  the  material  side,  as  members  of 
the  great  rank  and  file  of  the  body  politic,  to  carry  their  share  and 
do  their  part  in  the  industrial  and  civic  development  of  their  country. 
The  scope  of  these  institutions  is  a  wide  one, — to  lay  the  firm  and 


4 


deep  foundations  of  the  superstructure  of  our  future  prosperity,  on 
the  only  safe  and  unchangeable  basis  of  our  agricultural  resources; 
to  open  up  new  sources  of  national  wealth  and  power,  and  to  help 
the  agricultural  classes  fulfill  in  greatest  measure  their  high  function 
as  the  great  conservative  leaven  of  the  people ;  all  this  is  properly 
included.  In  all  this,  too,  the  first  step  is  to  train  the  deft  hand  and 
the  ready  brain  to  self-sustaining  and  wealth-producing  endeavor ; 
to  dignify  agricultural  work,  to  put  it  on  its  true  plane  with  ref¬ 
erence  to  other  lines  of  human  activity  and  to  demonstrate  how 
fruitful  a  field  there  is  here  for  the  highest  intelligence  and  most 
profound  study  and  research.  It  is  a  work  of  sufficient  magnitude 
to  enlist  to  their  utmost  not  only  individual  but  governmental  activi¬ 
ties.  That  the  National  Government  is  not  blind  to  its  importance 
is  evidenced  by  the  great  attention  that  is  given  to  the  comparatively 
new  Department  of  Agriculture;  that  the  people  are  not  blind  to 
its  worth  is  evidenced  by  the  degree  of  popular  interest  with  which 
the  work  of  this  department  is  followed  and  its  results  accepted. 

Starting  upwards  of  sixty  years  ago  with  the  distribution  of 
some  rare  varieties  of  foreign  seeds  by  the  Commissioner  of  the 
Patent  Office,  the  department  has  grown  until  it  has  become  the 
one  branch  of  governmental  activity  (excepting  only  the  Postoffice) 
which  comes  into  most  direct  relations  to  the  whole  people,  and 
whose  work  is  most  directly  beneficial  to  the  masses.  Elevated  to 
a  bureau,  under  charge  of  a  separate  commissioner  in  1862,  it  has, 
by  force  of  its  own  merit,  grown  in  importance  and  influence  until 
it  was,  in  1889,  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  department,  with  a  cabinet 
secretary  at  its  head.  This  growth  has  been  more  or  less  in  the 
face  of  public  indifference  and  sometimes  something  worse  than 
indifference.  It  is  not  so  long  ago  that  in  semi-derision  it  was  called 
the  “Cow  Department/'  and  it  is  only  under  the  last  three  admin¬ 
istrations  that  its  real  force  and  power  has  been  appreciated.  This 
has  come  about  under  the  direction  of  Secretary  Morton  and  his 
most  able  successor,  the  canny  Scotchman, — Secretary  James  Wil¬ 
son,  who  for  the  last  seven  years  has  been  at  its  head. 

There  is  now  gathered  around  that  great  leader  of  men  a  corps 
of  scientists  which  is  unapproached  (and  I  use  the  word  carefully 
and  with  no  rhetorical  license)  by  any  similar  body  in  the  world. 
Those  of  you  who  are  directly  connected  with  the  administration  of 
the  College  know  how  great  a  work  is  now  being  done  by  those 
men  in  and  through  the  Experiment  Stations  and  through  the  dif¬ 
ferent  bureaus.  You  know,  too,  how  agricultural  research  and 
investigation  has  been  stimulated ;  how  information  has  been  dis¬ 
seminated,  and  means  of  industrial  study  and  experiment  furnished, 
until  the  department  has  become  truly  a  great  university  for  the 


5 


people.  But  to  those,  who  like  myself  had  only  a  general  knowledge 
of  this  work,  the  record  reads  like  fiction. 

For  instance,  a  corps  of  botanists  so  skillful  and  so  expert  that 
their  reputation  is  international  and  their  advice  sought  from  foreign 
countries,  are  now  working  with  all  the  resources  at  their  disposal,  to 
solve  for  the  farmer  in  a  practical  way,  a  problem  which  has  a 
keen  interest  for  the  citizens  of  this  country.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
call  to  your  attention  the  fact  that  one  of  the  great  difficulties  to  the 
successful  growth  of  sugar  beets,  particularly  in  countries  where 
we  pay  our  laborers  as  liberally  as  we  do,  and  should  do,  here,  is  the 
necessity  of  careful  and  continued  thinning.  The  great  number  of 
small  beet  plants  which  come  up  and  make  this  expense  a  necessity, 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  each  single  beet  seed  contains  in  itself  a 
number  of  germ  cells,  as  distinguished  from  other  seeds  like  corn, 
peas  and  beans,  which  are  unicellular  with  but  a  single  germ  and 
produce  but  a  single  plant  from  a  seed.  If,  now,  a  beet  seed  can  be 
developed  containing  but  one  plant  germ,  the  whole  problem  of  the 
thinning  and  weeding  of  sugar  beets  is  eliminated,  and  it  simply 
becomes  a  question  of  careful  planting  of  single  vigorous  seeds. 

It  is  too  early  to  speak  authoritatively  on  this  matter,  but  ex¬ 
periments  have  gone  so  far  that  it  can  safely  be  predicted  that  such 
a  seed  will  be  obtained  in  a  short  time.  Indeed,  my  own  belief  is 
that  another  year  will  see  this  result  reached  and  I  can  imagine  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Colorado  beet  sugar  growers  when  it  is  secured. 

Another  class  of  experimenters  dealing  with  sugar  beet  prob¬ 
lems  are  developing  an  American  seed,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  note  that 
these  American-grown  seeds,  particularly  those  from  the  arid  re¬ 
gions,  produce  plants  with  a  saccharine  content  more  than  25  per 
cent,  in  excess  of  that  of  the  French  and  German  seeds  which  we 
now  import  at  the  expense  of  more  than  half  a  million  dollars  a 
year.  The  result  of  this  work  of  course  is  to  make  the  American 
sugar  beet  grower  more  than  ever  independent  of  his  foreign  com¬ 
petitor.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  a  portion  of  this  research  is  now 
being  done  in  conjunction  with  our  own  local  institution,  and  a  result 
so  important  to  our  domestic  interests  will,  in  part  at  least,  be  a 
contribution  of  Colorado  brains  and  Colorado  effort  and  endeavor. 

Climatic  conditions  are  the  constant  subject  of  most  careful 
attention  at  the  hands  of  the  Department.  Every  experiment  station 
has  its  meteorological  observations,  and  the  collated  results  are  of 
priceless  value  to>  the  agricultural  interests.  It  may  please  our 
national  vanity  to  know  that  no  nation  in  the  World  has  a  depart¬ 
ment  of  meteorology  in  any  way  comparable  to  our  own,  and  that 
when  our  South  American  neighbors  attempt  to  start  upon  this  im¬ 
portant  work,  it  is  to  our  Department  of  Agriculture  at  Washington, 


6 


and  not  to  any  French  or  German  school  of  applied  sciences  that 
they  send  for  men ;  but  it  comes  more  closely  home  to  you  and  to  me 
to  know  that,  in  all  probability,  the  appalling  loss  of  life  and  very 
much  of  the  loss  of  property  which  this  community  suffered  only  a 
few  days  ago,  could  have  been  averted  had  the  Cache  La  Poudre 
been  equipped,  as  every  large  mountain  stream  should  be,  with 
a  National  Flood  and  River  Service.  Prof.  Moore,  the  Chief  of  the 
Weather  Bureau,  told  us  in  the  committee  that  the  establishment  of 
this  service  on  the  Kaw  River  in  Kansas,  would  have  made  it  as 
easy  to  protect  Kansas  City  and  Topeka  from  the  terrible  loss  of  life 
and  property  last  year,  as  it  was  to  protect  St.  Louis,  where  not  one 
soul  perished,  and  where  very  little  property  was  destroyed. 

A  short  time  ago,  in  Pittsburg  alone,  property  was  saved  to  the 
people  of  that  city  worth  several  times  the  entire  annual  cost  of  the 
whole  Department  of  Agriculture,  with  its  numerous  branches,  and 
yet  so  quietly  and  unostentatiously  is  this  work  carried  on,  that  the 
people  hardly  realize  that  it  is  being  done  at  all,  and  they  accept  the 
enormous  benefits  conferred,  like  the  air  they  breathe,  as  a  part  of 
the  ordinary  routine  of  life. 

You  will  be  interested  to  know  that  among  the  new  appropria¬ 
tions  of  the  last  session  of  Congress  was  one  for  the  establishment 
of  this  service  in  the  Kaw  Valley,  and  that  Colorado  also  came  in 
for  her  share,  in  the  establishment  of  a  complete  weather  signal  sta¬ 
tion  on  the  Las  Animas  at  Durango ;  and  I  hope  that  the  day  is  not 
far  distant  when  the  terrible  menace  to  life  and  property  which 
exists  along  all  these  mountain  water  courses,  will  be  minimized  at 
least  by  adequate  governmental  supervision,  as  a  part  of  the  great 
national  system  of  meteorological  investigations. 

We  are  beginning  to  learn  that  too  much  water  is  quite  as  bad 
as  not  enough ;  that  our  present  supply  is  in  many  cases  being  waste- 
fully  squandered ;  that  hidden  sources  of  supply  lie  in  many  places 
beneath  our  very  feet,  in  subterranean  water  courses  which  only 
need  location  and  intelligent  effort  in  pumping  to  render  them  avail¬ 
able  ;  that  systematic  drainage  in  many  localities  is,  or  should  be, 
constantly  associated  with  irrigation,  and  that  the  rise  of  alkaline 
deposits  is  but  the  result  of  unskilled  use  of  water.  These  and 
many  similar  problems  which  the  individual  farmer  could  solve,  if 
at  all,  only  after  long  years  of  costly  and  discouraging  investigation, 
with  many  heart-breaking  failures,  are  now  being  carried  on,  far  bet¬ 
ter  than  they  could  be  by  individuals,  through  the  instrumentality 
of  the  Agricultural  Department.  Again,  it  is  grateful  to  our  State 
pride  to  know  that  this  work  is  being  directed  with  rare  skill  and 
intelligence  by  a  Colorado  man  who  learned  irrigation  here  at  Fort 
Collins  and  who  was  an  early  teacher  in  this  institution.  I  need  not 


7 


say  that  the  work  is  well  done  when  I  recall  to  your  notice  that  it  is 
being  done  by  Prof.  Elwood  Meade,  who  is  now  claimed  by  the 
avaricious  little  commonwealth  on  the  north, — the  State  of  Wy¬ 
oming. 

Important  and  beneficial  as  the  National  Irrigation  Act  is,  and 
potent  as  it  may  be  for  the  future  greatness  of  this  region,  it  will 
be  ony  partially  efficient,  and  its  results  will  be  but  a  fraction  of 
what  they  should,  and  otherwise  would  be,  unless  the  users  of  water 
learn  that  irrigation  is  an  art  and  that  its  practice  varies  with  an 
hundred  local  conditions  and  circumstances.  The  extension  of  the 
use  of  water  for  irrigation  purposes  is  bringing  with  it,  constantly, 
new  problems  and  new  fields  for  investigation.  To  teach  these 
lessons  and  to  solve  these  problems  is  the  work  of  the  Bureau  of 
Irrigation  Investigation,  a  part  of  whose  work  during  the  coming 
season  is  to  be  done  in  the  Arkansas  and  San  Luis  Valleys  in  this 
State.  Prof.  Meade  is  also  devoting  much  attention  to  subterraneous 
waters  under  the  arid  lands  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  and 
the  prospects  for  success  are  excellent. 

The  work  of  the  Bureau  of  Plant  Industry  is  fascinating  in  its 
details  and  marvelous  in  its  results.  Some  of  these  I  have  already 
mentioned.  Its  chief,  Dr.  Galloway,  tireless  in  the  interest  of  his 
department,  is  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  needs  of  every  section 
of  the  country,  and  all  sections  have  reaped  the  fruits  of  his  work. 

The  original  tree  from  which  was  propagated  all  the  seedless 
oranges  of  the  country  now  stands  and  is  still  bearing  fruit  on  the 
Arlington  farm  grounds  of  the  department.  The  physicists  of  the 
department  found  that  the  same  soil,  chemically  considered,  on  which 
grew  the  famous  “Sumatra  leaf  tobacco”  was  also  to  be  found  in  the 
Connecticut  Wiley.  Careful  tests  were  made  under  the  direction 
of  the  bureau  officers  in  connection  with  the  Connecticut  experiment 
station.  It  was  found  that  this  tobacco  could,  with  proper  care,  be 
grown  on  the  Connecticut  soil,  and  to-day  the  Sumatra  wrapper  as  a 
direct  result  of  the  department’s  efforts,  is  grown  successfully  there 
on  a  large  scale,  adding  to  the  value  of  the  products  of  that  valley 
millions  of  dollars  per  annum.  Similar  investigations  in  connection 
with  the  soil  surveys  have  demonstrated  that  Cuban  tobacco  can  be 
grown  in  certain  sections  of  Georgia  and  Alabama  and  the  Carolinas. 
New  and  more  prolific  varieties  of  cotton  have  been  introduced ; 
varieties  which  resist  the  “wilt’'  by  virtue  of  a  quality  in  the  plant 
which  acts  as  a  poison  to  the  insect  which  causes  it,  have  been  dis¬ 
covered  and  the  value  of  this  great  staple,  so  important  to  a  full 
third  of  the  people  _of  the  United  States,  has  been  increased  marvel¬ 
ously.  Plant  blights  and  diseases  are  being  treated  scientifically 
with  great  ability  and  remarkable  success.  Their  causes  either  in 


8 


fungus  growth  or  unfavorable  conditions  are  studied  and  ascer¬ 
tained  and  then  dealt  with  as  skilfully  as  diseases  of  the  human 
system  are  treated,  and  along  similar  lines.  Frost-resisting  fruits 
and  hardy  plants  have  been  developed.  A  great  work  has  been 
done,  and  is  being  done,  in  stimulating  interest  in  forestry  and  culti¬ 
vating  the  aesthetic  sense  by  the  distribution  of  rare  and  beautiful 
foliage  trees.  In  our  own  region  hardy  grasses  and  forage  crops 
have  been  introduced,  and  this  year  large  amounts  of  seed  of  hardy 
plants  and  grasses  have  been  sent  to  the  high  altitude  counties  for  ex¬ 
periment.  We  shall  watch  these  experiments  with  great  interest.  I 
believe  that  very  valuable  results  will  be  obtained  and  that  the  agri¬ 
cultural  possibilities  of  our  high  altitude  sections  will  be  very  much 
increased.  If  nothing  else  has  been  accomplished  by  this  bureau,  the 
introduction  of  the  macaroni  wheat  would  be  a  sufficient  result  to 
earn  for  its  officers  the  gratitude  of  the  arid  regions.  It  is  being 
demonstrated  by  actual  results  that  this  wheat,  brought  from  the 
steppes  of  Russia  by  the  department  will,  in  these  regions,  thrive 
with  eleven  inches  of  moisture  without  irrigation,  and  average,  under 
proper  conditions,  from  twenty  to  thirty  bushels  to  the  acre.  A 
recent  bulletin  from  the  department  says  that  Yuma  County,  Colo¬ 
rado,  grows  the  finest  wheat  of  this  variety  in  the  United  States. 
It  has  a  food  value  equal,  if  not  superior,  to  the  ordinary  wheats, 
and  its  introduction  has  brought  with  it  the  establishment  of  another 
American  industry  in  the  manufacture  of  American  macaroni. 

The  most  surprising  feature  of  the  work  of  this  bureau  is  that 
of  the  discovery  of  the  nitrogen  fixing  bacteria.  It  was  Franklin 
who  drew  the  lightning  from  the  clouds  and  initiated  all  the  won¬ 
ders  of  modern  electrical  science.  It  has  remained  for  the  Depart¬ 
ment  of  Agriculture,  by  the  culture  of  a  germ,  in  a  manner  similar  to 
that  in  which  the  various  anti-toxin  germs  are  developed,  to  control 
scientifically  the  drawing  from  the  air  of  the  nitrogenous  elements 
necessary  for  plant  life.  With  a  few  drops  of  water  laden  with 
these  bacilli  sprinkled  over  the  seeds  it  is  possible  to  replenish  the 
fields  worn  out  with  years  of  cropping,  and  enormously  increase  the 
productiveness  of  the  crops. 

We  have  all  known  how  valuable  alfalfa,  the  clovers  and  the 
leguminous  plants  are  in  restoring  worn-out  lands.  We  have 
known,  in  a  general  way,  that  this  was  the  result  of  the  fact  that 
these  plants,  through  their  tendrils,  drew  from  the  atmosphere 
their  stores  of  nitrogen  which  they  deposited  at  their  roots,  and 
thereby  gave  to  the  soil  the  elements  necessary  for  the  production 
of  plant  life.  We  did  not  know  that  this  was  done  through  a 
parasitic  organism  which  developed  on  the  small  tubercles  which 
formed  at  the  joints  on  the  roots  of  these  plants,  and  that  the 


9 


greater  the  number  of  bacteria  the  greater  the  power  of  the  plant  to 
absorb  the  nitrogen  and  fix  it  in  the  ground.  These  small  bacteria 
can  be  grown,  and  are  grown  in  the  laboratories  of  the  department, 
and  their  power  to  absorb  and  fix  nitrogen  is  increased  by  a  process 
exactly  similar  to  that  by  which  the  virulence  of  the  bacillus  of  hydro¬ 
phobia  is  reduced  until  it  can  be  injected  with  safety  into  the  human 
system.  After  development  and  propagation  to  the  requisite  de¬ 
gree  they  are  sent  out  to  experimenters  in  little  tubes.  When 
placed  in  the  ground  they  serve  the  purpose  of  most  valuable  fertil¬ 
izers  by  increasing  their  number  with  enormous  rapidity  and  thus 
placing  in  the  soil,  for  the  use  of  plant  life,  large  stores  of  nitrogen. 
Enough  to  furnish  fertilizing  matter  for  seeds  for  several  acres  is  con¬ 
tained  in  two  tubes  the  size  of  one's  finger  and  about  three  inches  long 
in  which  are  the  requisite  substances  for  this  development.  A  cul¬ 
ture  is  made  from  the  contents  of  these  tubes  which  is  in  the  form  of 
a  yeasty  solution,  and  contains  in  itself  the  power  of  reproduction 
of  the  organism  to  a  great  extent.  Seeds  are  sprinkled  with  this 
solution  and  then  planted,  and  when  the  first  root  sprouts  start,  the 
bacteria  attaching  to  them  form  the  tubercles,  the  organisms  in¬ 
crease  in  great  numbers,  and  the  work  of  drawing  on  the  atmospheric 
supply  of  nitrogen  and  applying  it  to  the  development  of  vegetable 
life  is  begun. 

Crude  attempts  were  made,  some  years  ago,  to  accomplish 
this  result  by  introducing  earth  laden  with  bacteria,  from  for¬ 
eign  countries ;  the  Germans  also  made  attempts  at  cultures  which 
were  unsuccessful,  but  the  experiments  which  I  have  just  alluded 
to  are  the  first  which  have  been  of  commercial  value  along  these 
lines.  The  Department  of  Agriculture,  therefore,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  farmers  and  of  the  agricultural  interests  of  this  country,  is  to-day 
availing  itself  of,  and  practicing  successfully  the  identical  method 
of  investigation  and  scientific  work  which  goes  on  in  bacterio¬ 
logical  laboratories,  and  which  we  have  come  to  regard  with  mingled 
awe  and  amazement.  Moreover,  they  have  put  their  results  into 
such  a  practical  and  tangible  form  that  there  is  not  a  ranchman  in 
the  State  of  Colorado  who  cannot,  on  his  own  behalf,  successfully 
develop  the  same  cultures  for  his  own  individual  use.  This  discov¬ 
ery,  which  has  now  reached  a  practical  and  commercial  stage,  bids 
fair  to  absolutely  revolutionize  some  branches  of  agricultural  work. 

More  important  in  some  ways  even  than  this,  is  the  work  that 
the  bacteriologists  of  this  department  have  just  done  in  a  notable 
contribution  to  sanitary  science,  and  if  the  results  prove  as  import¬ 
ant  as  they  promise  to  be,  a  long  stride  has  been  taken  in  a  direction 
of  safeguarding  the  public  health. 

The  deadly  bacillus  of  typhoid  fever  has  long  been  known  and 


io 


recognized.  It  has  now  met  its  destroyer  and  this  destroyer  has 
come,  not  from  the  great  medical  schools  at  Cambridge,  Philadelphia, 
New  York  or  St.  Louis ;  not  from  the  laboratories  connected  with  the 
great  hospitals  of  the  land,  but  from  the  ranks  of  the  underpaid  and 
overworked  scientists  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  You 
know  well  the  green  scum  which  frequents  reservoirs  and  other 
places  where  standing  water  remains  in  the  summer  months ;  the 
long  green  fibers  and  filaments  called  algae,  which  are  a  low  form 
of  vegetable  life  and  render  the  water  unsightly,  malodorous  and 
noxious.  These  algal  organisms  are  closely  associated  with  various 
bacterial  growths  and  are  frequently  the  home  and  breeding  place 
of  the  typhoid  germ,  as  well  as  that  of  myriads  of  mosquitoes  which 
are  now  recognized  as  one  of  the  greatest  disease-spreading  agencies 
which  we  have  to  contend  with. 

The  close  association  between  typhoid  fever  and  kindred  dis¬ 
eases  and  the  diminished  and  contaminated  water  supplies  of  August 
and  September  has  become  proverbial,  and  the  prevalence  of  moun¬ 
tain  fever  now  recognized  as  only  a  low  type  of  typhoid  has  been 
traced  to  the  same  sources  and  causes. 

One  of  the  department  pathologists,  in  seeking  a  means  of  clear¬ 
ing  water  cress  beds  of  these  disease-breeding  bacteria,  found  that  a 
few  drops  of  solution  of  copper  sulphate  carefully  administered  in 
proper  proportions  destroys  the  algal  growth,  sterilizes  the  water 
and  makes  it  clear  and  wholesome.  The  scum  disappears,  the  germs 
are  dead,  and  the  song  of  the  mosquito  is  lulled.  The  next  step 
was  to  apply  the  same  remedy  to  water  supplies  and  it  was  quickly 
and  successfully  done.  It  is  a  simple  thing,  but  it  seems  to  have 
removed  at  a  stroke  the  greatest  cause  of  rural  unsanitary  conditions, 
and  of  contamination  of  urban  water  supplies  with  which  we  have 
to  deal.  The  boards  of  health  and  water  departments  of  the  great 
cities  are  giving  much  attention  to  this  work  and  it  gives  every 
promise  of  being  successful.  How  much  suffering,  sorrow  and 
death  will  be  avoided  by  this  simple  means  thus  discovered  we  can 
now  only  conjecture.  It  seems  certain,  however,  that  another  great 
contribution  to  the  sum  of  human  knowledge  has  been  made,  and 
that  this  department,  already  famous,  is  to  receive  still  greater  dis¬ 
tinction  from  the  work  of  its  representatives. 

The  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  has  long  been  carrying  on  a 
work,  largely  through  the  experiment  stations,  of  great  importance 
to  the  people.  The  live  stock  interests  are  under  the  greatest  obli¬ 
gations  for  assistance  rendered,  and  this  obligation  is  increasing. 
I  thoroughly  believe,  however,  that  nothing  which  the  department 
has  done  or  will  do  will  prove  of  greater  interest  or  value  to  our 
people  than  the  experiments  in  animal  feeding  and  breeding  soon  to 


be  inaugurated  at  this  station.  It  is  certainly  a  reflection  on  Ameri¬ 
can  industry  and  enterprise  that  thus  far  we  have  done  practically 
nothing  toward  developing  any  distinctive  type  of  domestic  animal. 
We  have  exterminated  the  only  wild  animal,  indigenous  to  the  coun¬ 
try  which  offered  any  possibility  of  domestication,  in  the  Bison. 
Our  cattle  are  Scotch,  English  or  Dutch  and  still  carry  their  foreign 
distinctive  names.  Our  sheep  are  Spanish  or  English,  and  likewise 
are  still  so  named.  Our  horses  are  Flemish  or  British,  with  some¬ 
times  an  Arabian  blend,  although  our  wild  range  ponies  possess 
desirable  qualities  sought  for  in  vain  in  their  more  aristocratic 
cousins.  Our  swine  are  grown  from  imported  stock,  and  even  our 
scrubby  little  beast  of  burden — the  Rocky  Mountain  Canary — is 
Andalusian.  Here  is  certainly  a  wide  field  for  effort,  and  I  have 
faith  that  American  and  Colorado  genius,  turned  in  this  direction, 
will  yet  produce  on  these  sun-kissed  fields,  horses  the  strongest  and 
finest,  cattle  the  hardiest  and  the  most  remunerative,  and  other 
domestic  animals  ideally  suited  to  their  conditions,  without  calling 
upon  foreign  breeders  for  help. 

These  are  but  a  few  instances  of  the  practical  side  of  the  activi¬ 
ties  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  they  serve  to  show  the 
scope  of  work.  Many  of  these  wonderful  results  have  been  worked 
out  directly  in  connection  with  the  experiment  stations.  Knowl¬ 
edge  of  these  results,  put  in  popular  form  with  suggestions  for  their 
application,  has  been  widely  disseminated  and  rendered  available 
through  the  Bureau  of  Publication.  One  cannot  treat  properly  the 
work  of  this  department  without  a  word  as  to  what  Dr.  Hill  of  this 
bureau  is  doing.  The  volume  of  carefully  edited  and  wonderfully 
valuable  literature  which  is  being  collated  and  rendered  available 
through  this  means  is  not  appreciated  in  any  adequate  degree.  It 
is  in  this  way  that  the  laboratory  work,  so  to  speak,  carried  on  at 
the  experiment  station  has  been  kept  constantly  in  touch  with  the 
authorities  at  Washington,  and  through  them  has  been  brought  home 
to  the  people. 

I  violate  no  confidence,  however,  and  disclose  no  secrets  when 
I  say,  that  it  is  the  hope  and  intention  of  the  department  and  those 
interested  in  its  advancement,  that  the  co-operation  between  the 
Washington  headquarters  and  the  local  Experiment  Stations  may 
in  the  future  be  far  more  close  and  complete  than  it  is  now.  It  is 
hoped  that  thereby,  through  a  greater  number  of  men  working  along 
similar  lines,  greater  accuracy  of  results  may  be  obtained,  valuable 
time  saved  and  that  the  results  when  achieved  may  be  more  rapidly 
and  thoroughly  disseminated.  It  is  hoped  by  the  authorities,  that 
the  students  in  the  class-rooms  and  laboratories  of  the  colleges 
may,  as  they  spend  the  months  and  years  of  their  student  life 


12 


among  surroundings  like  these,  acquire  positive  sources  of  knowl¬ 
edge  which  will  be  helpful  to  them  in  their  work,  and  also  the 
habit  and  ability  to  conduct  independent  investigations,  and  that 
they  may  be  intellectually  equipped  therefor.  In  this  way  they  will 
be  able  to  carry  with  them  into  actual  life  the  power  to  solve,  for 
themselves,  at  least  some  of  the  problems  that  will  confront  them. 

The  department  is,  therefore,  as  I  have  said  before,  year  by 
year  becoming  more  and  more  a  great  National  university  of  indus¬ 
trial  education,  a  great  storehouse  for  the  people,  from  which  they 
may  draw  supplies  of  information  and  suggestion,  and  from  which 
they  may  receive  guidance  and  helpful  direction. 

And  yet  these  results  are  being  accomplished  at  a  cost  so 
small  as  to  be  surprising.  An  annual  tax  of  about  7.5  cents  per 
capita  is  all  that  this  great  work  costs  the  people.  The  appropria¬ 
tions  for  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  the  current  year  aggre¬ 
gate  less  than  six  million  dollars,  less  than  the  cost  of  a  single 
complete  battleship.  The  postoffice  appropriation  bill  carried  for  the 
same  period  $172,574,998,  the  civil  list  $57,846,911,  the  army  bill 
$77,°7°, 3°°,  an^  yet  all  of  these  appropriations  are  cheerfully  and 
readily  met,  and  are  warranted  by  the  facts  and  conditions  of  our 
National  growth. 

No  one  questions  the  wisdom  or  necessity  of  their  expenditure, 
least  of  all  the  great  agricultural  industries  of  the  country.  The 
time  is  soon  coming,  however,  when  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
must  ask  for  larger  supplies,  and  I  urge  upon  you  as  citizens 
to  bear  in  mind  the  immense  value  of  this  work,  and  at  the  proper 
time  to  voice  your  convictions  to  your  representatives. 

We  are  proud  of  the  agricultural  station  at  Fort  Collins.  We 
rejoice  at  what  it  has  accomplished,  and  yet  there  is  another  side. 
It  is  true  here  as  elsewhere,  that  “as  ye  sow,  so  shall  ye  also  reap.” 
We  have  a  duty  yet  to  do  as  citizens  of  this  State.  Our  State  appro¬ 
priations  carry  nothing  for  the  support  of  the  Experiment  Station  as 
such,  notwithstanding  all  the  immense  good  that  it  has  done  and  is 
doing.  I  was  frequently  made  painfully  conscious  of  this  fact. 

Whenever  I  made  a  suggestion  that  this  or  that  appropriation 
for  experiment  station  work  was  a  valuable  one  for  the  State  of 
Colorado  and  urged  its  adoption,  I  was  met  at  once  with  the  query 
“What  is  your  State  doing?”  I  had  to  defend  myself  as  best  I 
might  by  showing  that  in  fact  the  State  was  doing  a  great  deal  for 
the  Experiment  Station  because  of  its  liberal  appropriation  for  the 
Agricultural  College,  but  we  suffer  sadly  by  comparison  with  many 
other  States,  and  it  is  in  these  States  that  the  people  get  the  greatest 
good  and  the  results  of  the  work  of  the  department  are  most  marked. 

y 
y 


13 


Prominent  among  these  States  which  have  in  recent  years  made 
liberal  appropriations  for  experiment  stations  are,  Illinois,  appro¬ 
priating  $54,000  in  1902  and  $85,000  in  1903;  Iowa,  $55,000  in 
1902;  Minnesota,  $42,000  in  1902;  Kansas,  $32,000  in  1902;  Wis¬ 
consin,  $150,000  in  1902  and  $14,000  in  1903. 

These  are  by  no  means  the  only  States  that  have  dealt  lib¬ 
erally,  and  while  the  appropriation  in  some  cases  has  gone  for  build¬ 
ings,  in  which  regard  Colorado  has  also  been  liberal,  usually  they 
have  been  for  general  scientific  work. 

The  results  sustain  the  general  proposition.  The  Illinois  sta¬ 
tion  has  repaid  these  sums  many  times  over  already  by  its  studies 
in  seed  corn.  It  has  decreased  the  size  of  the  cob,  and  increased 
the  size  and  number  of  the  kernels.  It  has  gone  further  and  has 
changed  the  chemical  constituents  of  the  corn  itself.  It  has  re¬ 
duced  the  excessive  amount  of  hydrocarbon  or  fat-producing  part 
of  the  kernel,  and  increased  the  amount  of  protein  and  nitrogenous 
elements  which  go  to  make  up  sinew  and  muscle  and  support  ner¬ 
vous  action.  The  increased  annual  value  of  the  corn  crop  to  the 
farmer  because  of  the  work  of  these  scientists,  considering  the 
amount,  salability  and  potential  value  of  the  crop,  is  to  be  reckoned 
only  in  millions. 

The  work  of  the  Iowa  station  in  developing  meat  and  milk- 
producing  plants  has  been  priceless  to  the  great  dairy  interests  of 
that  State  and  the  people  know  and  appreciate  it. 

From  the  State  of  Kansas,  and  from  the  results  of  moneys  paid 
to  the  sub-stations  by  the  taxpayers  of  that  State,  we  here  in  Colo¬ 
rado  have  derived  much  benefit  in  added  knowledge  of  plants  for 
our  arid  regions,  foremost  among  which  is  the  Kaffir  corn. 

In  Minnesota,  the  station’s  work  challenges  admiration.  By  de¬ 
veloping  a  variety  of  wheat  with  extra  rows  of  kernels  an  increase 
of  fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent,  in  the  production  is  made  possible  and 
practicable.  When  we  consider  that  the  addition  of  a  single  grain 
of  wheat  per  head  through  the  United  States  is  estimated  by  com¬ 
petent  judges  to  mean  fifteen  million  bushels  per  annum,  it  is  diffi¬ 
cult  not  to  become  over-enthusiastic. 

It  is  hard  to  select  from  the  work  which  the  Wisconsin  station 
is  enabled  to  carry  on  because  of  the  State  appropriations,  or  to 
properly  select  representative  subjects  for  comment.  The  applica¬ 
tion  of  formaldehyde  as  a  remedy  for  the  disease  in  oats  called 
"smut”  is  perhaps  the  most  important  in  pecuniary  results.  Com¬ 
petent  judges  state  that  this  remedy  saved  the  farmers  of  that  State 
last  year  five  million  dollars.  Yet  the  total  sum  included  in  both 
the  State  and  Federal  appropriations  for  the  same  period  was  only 
$29,000,  and  for  the  two  years  covered  by  the  estimates  above, 

$j  94,000. 

*  \ 

V 


14 


Is  there  not  enough  here  to  make  us  very  hopeful,  and  also  to 
induce  us  from  simply  selfish  reasons  as  citizens  of  Colorado  to  be 
very  liberal  in  our  State  appropriation?  The  farmer's  prosperity 
is  everyone's  prosperity,  and  unless  he  prospers  no  one  else  in  the 
community  can  long  prosper. 

We  must  not,  however,  entirely  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
there  is  another  side  to  the  question  which  we  have  been  discuss¬ 
ing;  that  mere  utilitarian  and  pecuniary  results  are  not  everything; 
that  this  is  an  educational  institution ;  that  education  is  drawing  out 
that  which  is  within  the  student  and  not  simply  acquisition ;  that 
it  is  an  evolution  and  a  growth.  We  are  here  developing  character 
and  all  that  goes  with  it  and  are  preparing  for  life  in  its  fullest 
sense  with  all  its  phases  and  all  its  duties.  That  man  is  not  educated 
in  any  true  sense  of  the  term  who  is  equipped  merely  as  a  dollar- 
getting  machine,  whether  he  gets  his  dollars  in  Wall  Street,  as  a 
railroad  manager,  or  as  tiller  of  fields,  so  long  as  his  soul  is  starved, 
his  mental  development  dwarfed  and  the  aesthetic  and  ethical  sides 
of  his  nature  undeveloped.  That  woman  fails  lamentably  of  any 
true  education  who  has  been  instilled  with  the  idea  that  material 
prosperity  or  financial  consideration  are  sufficient  ends  in  themselves 
and  who  is  destitute  of  the  finer  and  nobler  graces  of  culture  that 
have  made  the  American  woman  what  she  is  and  what  we  trust  she 
always  will  be. 

I  am  glad,  therefore,  as  I  look  over  the  courses  of  study  of 
this  institution  and  learn  of  its  work,  to  find  that  the  “humanities" 
are  so  well  represented  and  to  know  that  they  are  so  admirably 
taught;  that  Art,  History  and  Literature  with  their  refining  and 
broadening  influences,  are  not  forgotten ;  that  the  modern  languages, 
opening  up  their  wide  fields  for  study  and  intellectual  growth,  have 
their  share,  and  that  there  is  also  a  place  for  the  “great  tongue  of 
Rome." 

It  is  well  for  the  agricultural  enthusiast  to  know,  as  he  will 
know  from  his  history  of  Agriculture,  that  Virgil  gained  his  earlier 
fame  as  a  poet  by  his  agricultural  verse,  and  that  he  was  an  enthusi¬ 
ast  in  such  subjects;  that  Horace,  the  great  lyric  poet  of  his  time, 
turned  always  with  delight  to  his  crops  and  his  Sabine  farm,  but 
it  is  also  well  that  they  should  know  something  of  the  work  of 
these  men  as  men ;  and  that  they  should  come  in  touch  with  the  lives, 
the  forces  and  the  civilization  of  the  great  epoch  in  which  they 
lived.  It  is  well  that  the  student  should  know  that  Rosseau,  the 
great  philosophic  writer  of  the  early  days  of  the  French  Revolution 
was  a  lover  of  nature  and  communed  with  her  in  her  rural  phases, 
but  they  should  also  gain  some  insight  into  the  causes,  manifestations 
and  outcomes  of  the  greatest  social  upheaval  of  modern  times. 


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Tolstoi  in  the  fields  is  an  interesting  and  inspiring  figure  to  the 
agriculturist,  but  the  agricultural  student  loses  the  greatest  lesson 
from  the  life  of  the  man  who  does  not  know  the  philosopher,  philan¬ 
thropist  and  publicist  through  his  work  and  writings  in  other  fields. 
The  father  of  this  government  should  appeal  to  them  not  only  as  a 
farmer  and  one  who  gained  both  pleasure  and  profit  from  his  tilling 
of  the  soil,  but  they  should  also  obtain,  and  carry  away  with  them  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  great  outlines  of  the  character  unrivaled, 
of  the  soldier,  statesman  and  patriot. 

In  a  word,  it  is  for  citizenship  and  for  life  among  men  and 
women,  that  the  young  men  and  women  who  are  graduating  to-day 
have  been  fitting  themselves,  and  all  that  makes  that  citizenship 
more  noble  and  gives  to  it  higher  aims  and  aspirations;  all  that 
makes  that  life  broader,  richer,  more  satisfying  to  themselves,  and 
more  helpful  to  their  associates,  should  receive  careful  and  constant 
attention.  That  the  State  Agricultural  College  of  Colorado  is  doing 
its  full  duty  by  its  students  and  the  public  in  these  particulars,  we 
who  are  here  to-day  have  no  question  and  no  doubt;  that  it  will  be 
enabled  to  serve  these  interests  much  more  adequately  and  efficiently 
in  the  future  by  reason  of  added  opportunities,  facilities  and  public 
support,  is  the  earnest  hope  of  us  all ;  and  it  should  be  and  I  am 
sure  will  be  the  subject  of  our  persistent  effort  to  realize  this  hope. 


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